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2015/08/28

Taiwan Travel Diary #22: First Jiufen Trip


Honey Toast at Perfume Dance Cafe

Hey everyone~
Today, I have another blog post about Taiwan for all of you. (finally)
Hope you enjoy~


Todays topic will be a popular tourist destination, just a daytrip away from Taipei:
Jiufen  (  九份 )


How to get to Jiufen:

1. The easiest option, but also the most expensive as always, is taking a taxi.
If you want to save some money, but still have the comfort of a taxi taking you there directly:
Go to one of the bus stations that have buses to Jiufen.
There will always be some taxi drivers who will try to get customers, who offer rides to Jiufen in about 40 minutes for around 200NTD per person, which is possible because they wait for enough customers to completely fill the taxi before departing.
We chose that option when going back from Jiufen, as the queue for the bus was really long.


2. By Train.
Take the train from Taipei Main station to Ruifang station. From there take the bus to Jiufen.
I haven't done that myself , but apparantly it takes about an hour in total to get there and a bit more than 100NTD.


3. By Bus:
It's one of the easiest and cheapest options, but it's slightly slower than the other two methods.
Take Bus No. 1062 from Zhongxiao Fuxing Road (Exit 1) or Songshan station. There's a couple of other stops but those two are the ones most easy to find.
Costs 90NTD one way and takes around an hour.
However, only take the bus when you can get a seat. If it's too crowded, I'd recommend just taking the taxi as the bus ride is very bumpy and the roads are partially very bad. You do not want to do that bus ride for over an hour standing just to save around 100NTD. It's not worth it.
But if you get a seat, it's nice and there's lots of great scenery to see.



Jiufen is a beautiful small town, with lots of small shops and things to eat.






You can even buy clothes for your dog if you want to! 











On the day we went to Jiufen, it was pretty hot and humid (like almost every day here during summer), so we got something to drink.
Ice-cream peppermint tea:



Jiufen looks incredibly beautiful, and has an amazing view.
I could spend so much time there, if it wasn't always crowded with tourists.



There are also two very beautiful temples there that you can visit.







A lot of the tourists visiting Jiufen are Japanese.
One of the main reasons for Jiufen to draw in so many tourists is a japanese movie by  Studio Ghibli.
I'm sure most of you have watched it, if not, go watch it right now, it's a masterpiece.

Spirited Away


Do you see the resemblance?
Apparantly, Hayao Miyazaki himself visited Jiufen years ago, and this town inspired him to draw Spirited Away.


Many places in Jiufen resemble scenery from Spirited Away, and thus, it draws in a lot of tourists


As soon as it gets darker this place turns magical, with glowing lanterns everywhere.






If you visit Jiufen and plan to buy souvenirs and eat snacks, make sure you don't go too late.
We went in the afternoon, but most stalls started closing around 6PM already (still during daylight hours)



Strawberry Jelly~


Grape Jelly~











That's it for today~ 
Sorry for the long post and hope you enjoyed my photo spam~ ^-^
Have you ever been to Jiufen, or would you like to go?
Did all of you watch Spirited Away?
Please tell me in the comments below!

Love, Lydia


2015/08/24

Korea Trip #3: Pop container and the biggest Oreo Bingsu you have ever seen


Hey everyone~
I'll try something new today. As I'm back in Taipei, I should practice more Chinese, thus, I'll try to blog duolingal from now on!
我這個星期會來到台灣,應該練習中文多一點。所以我要試試用中文寫我的blog.

I haven't posted any photos of Bingsu, as I'll try to compile them all into a big Bingsu masterpost.
However, this place deserves special attention.
There's one thing on their menu which you have probably seen before.
我在韓國真的吃了很多不一樣的沙冰,但是現在要介紹的是比較特別。
你們知道 Pop Container 嗎 ? 那邊的沙冰比較紅:

Giant Oreo Bingsu! 


It was so, so huge!
But also quite pricey, around 15,000Won if I remember correctly.
真的非常大!沒看過那麼大的沙冰!
因為那麼大,也有點貴。15,000

Because it was this big, we were slightly worried it wouldn't taste good as a lot of bigger Bingsus are just shaved flavorless ice and few toppings.
However, we were happily surprised. The whole top part is actually Oreo flavoured too!
我們本來怕一點冰會沒有什麼味道,但是上面的冰全部是Oreo味道的!
真好吃,我們兩個人一起大部分吃得完哈哈


The cafe has a lot of space, and many people seem to come there to study too.
咖啡裏面有很多空間,看起來育比較多人來這裏學習




 If you're not convinced to go yet, look at this:
Instead of chairs, there's beanie bags at some taables!


How to get there:
Take subway line #2 to Sinchon station
Get out of exit #3
Walk straight until you see Nature Republic, then turn right
Walk straight for around 5 minutes, you'll spot Pop container on your right side (2nd floor)

怎麼會去 Pop Container:
先坐接運到梨花站
3號出口出去
一直走,看到 Nature Republic 那邊往右邊走
大概五分鍾一直走,應該在你右邊看到Pop Container
是在二樓

That's it for today, hope you enjoyed this post ^.^
Did you visit this cafe before? How was it?
Do you think you can finish such a huge Bingsu?
Please tell me in the comments below!

完了~
你們去過那邊嗎
如果去過,你們覺怎麼樣
這個沙冰,你們吃得完嗎 還是覺得不會哈哈
請你們在告訴我。謝謝

Love, Lydia